1. Why is the the word laiftadat pronounced with the letter “i” instead of “a” when the arabic letter is alef? The word is in 10:54 in the quran. I have been trying hard to figure it out on my own but i havent found out the reason yet. And its not only in that word, there are many examples where the alef is pronounced with an “i” or an “u” like in faistakbaroo in 10:75 or faukhruj in 15:34. How do you know when its an actual “a” or when its supposed to be an “i” or a u?

2. How do you know when the taa marboota is pronounced with an ta (or ti or tu) instead of an “h” at the end of a word? Are all pronpunced with an “h” or what?

Really hoping you can make me understand this.

Again jazak Allah khair for your effort to help your muslim brothers and sisters learn the tajweed.

Wa Alaykum Asalam Sister!Jazaki Allahu khair for the comment and questions. Subhanallah, it is a shame on my behalf that I still haven’t covered these topics in the site. Insha Allah soon.

Briefly here’s the answer though:

1. this “alif” is not pronounced at all, actually. We’ll look at the first word in 10:54 that you mentioned.
When reading this word, you do not say it as la-iftadat… you just say, laftadat.
This “alif” is something called “hamzatul wasl”. I have a resource file on this found here.
When you are reading, you have to drop this “alif” and just read as though it isn’t there. So like above, laftadat.
Same with 10:75, you read it as, fastakbaroo
And again, 15:34, is ready as fakhruj.

In the situation where you actually say this “alif” is only when there is nothing to connect it with (there isn’t a letter or word before it). And you say this with a kasra (i sound) or dammah (u sound) depending on the word.
Look at the word which has this “alif”. If the 3rd letter has a fat-ha or kasra, you say it with the “i” sound. If the third letter has a dammah, you say it with an “u” sound.
For example, in 20:42 you see the ayah starts with this “alif”. We look at the 3rd letter. It has a fat-ha, so we say this “alif” with a kasra (i sound)… we say “ith-hab”.

Saying this hamzatul wasl with an “u” sound happens when the 3rd letter of the word has a dammah.
Look at the verse 4:50 the first word is unthur. We say it unthur and not inthur because the 3rd letter has a dammah.

–I hope this makes sense. Insha Allah you can have a read of the resource file and look back here for a post about hamzatul wasl.

2. As for taa marboota… you say it with “h” when you are stopping on the word.
So for example, 56:2 you stop at the word kaathibah – with a “h”.
If you connect the last word of 56:2 with the 1st word of 56:3 you must say the taa marboota with the “a-i-u” or “an-in-un” sound it has on it – which ever one of them.
So for example, you say “kaathibatun khaafidah…”
If you continue to connect all these words, you end up saying

“kaathibatun khaafidatun raafi’ah”

Can you guess if you connect “raafi’ah” to the next ayah what you’d say? 🙂

“kaathibatun khaafidatun raafi’atun ithaa…….”

Of course, not all of the taa marboota have an-in-un sounds.

Some only have a-i-u sounds. Like 56:1 connected to 56:2 you say

“al-waaqi’ahtu laysa li…..”

Here’s the icing on the cake. See that “alif” for “al-waaqi’ah”…that’s also hamzatul wasl. You completely skip it when you connect with the word before.
i.e. you say ithaa waqa’atil-waaqi’ah…

Please don’t hesitate to buzz me back for more help. I’d love to better explain all this to you… Sometimes I’m not good at explaining 🙂

Alsalamo alaikom. Thank you so much for the explanations, it really helped. After i sent you my questions i asked Allah swt that you would answer and that i would understand your answer. Both my requests were fulfilled alhamdolillah.

All the other tajweed resources i have seen have been really hard to understand but your explanation gets 5 stars. Tajweed should be taught in an as easy way as possible and multiple examples should be given in order to demonstrate ones point, just like you did. Jazak Allah khair.

But since u explained my first two questions so well, im afraid i simply must ask you another obe 🙂

How can i know when the kasra, dammah and fat-ha at the end of a word should be pronounced and when it should be silent?

May Allah swt reward you for helping me, i really appreciate it. Keep up the Muslim spirit because your spreading not only knowledge but joy as well with your easy to understand explanations.

You should consider writing a tajweed for dummies book or something because its hard to find tajweed resources that can actually be understood without confusions, well it least it was/is for me who like things organized and easy.

Anyway, again thank you. Im glad Allah swt led me to your blog because it was a blessing for me.

Wa Alaykum Asalam!
Alhamdulilah, I’m really happy that my answers helped you. I won’t deny, the resources and other websites are not easy to understand unless you have sound knowledge of tajweed – this is one of the many reasons I started this site because I really noticed the lack of proper explanation...subhanallah… especially considering that tajweed is fard ayn – it really must be done!

I am happy to answer as many questions as you need… if you haven’t subscribe to the site to stay updated. Every time I post a new tajweed rule, you’ll get the link in your inbox. An option you can find at the bottom of the right hand side menu.

As for the diacritics found at the end of a word:
First note I am talking about the a-i-u sounds, as well as the an-in-un sounds.

1. You are supposed to read these if you are reciting continuously.
2. You stop with a sukoon when you stop at the end of a word, or you stop with a ‘h’ sound if the word ends with taa marboota.

So let’s look at examples:

“Bismillahi-rrahmani-rraheemi …”

If we wish to stop after the first word, we say “bismillah” not “bismillahi”.
If we wish to continue after the first word, we say “bismillahi-rrahman”.

If we are going to recite and we want to connect the basmalah (bismillahi-rrahmani-rraheem) with the first ayah of Surat Al-Baqarah, we say

“Bismillahi-rrahmani-rraheemi alif-laam-meem” …Of course, this applies to any ayah.

Let’s look at an ayah:

“wal-‘asr”

If we stop at “‘asr”, then we just put a sukoon on the raa letter. If we want to connect this first ayah with the next, we say

“wal-‘asri inna…”

This also can happen inside an ayah.
Suppose you ran out of breath, you must put a sukoon on the word you’re finishing off with to take a breath.
So example,

“wal-‘asri innal-insaan” breath “innal-insaana lafee khusr”

You would have otherwise just read it the latter way:

“innal-insaana lafee khusr” .. if you hadn’t run out of breath at “insaan”.

Examples with taa marboota you can re-read from my previous question about taa marboota. 🙂

Hope this helps, don’t hesitate to ask for more clarification!
May Allah bless you and the ummah with tawfeeq.

Im sorry if i am bothering you but i have another question. I am still a beginner so bare with me.

Are we supposed to pronounce the alif at the end of the word [whether in the form of ا or ى ] as a long alif or as a fatha?

Also, could you please show me in transliteration how as an example the verse 1:6 should be pronounced considering that the first word has an alif at the end? Should it be ihdinaas-siraatal-mustaqeem or what?

Wa Alaykum Asalam Sis!
Of course you’re not at all bothering me, had it not been for people like you, I would be sitting miserably in a corner not helping anyone!
Let’s first look at the example in 1:6 … the way you’ve written it is correct. That is how you pronounce it.
This is considered to be a bit of an advanced rule in tajweed (because it includes Arabic grammar) called mani‘ iltiqaa’ al-saakinayn….
But basically, the only time you do pronounce the alif sound as “aa” (whether ى or ـا) is when the word after it begins with a letter which has either fat-ha, dammah, or kasra on it.
So obviously for “ihdinaa al-siraata” you first note you must say “as-siraata” and second you note that the “a” in “as-siraata”is what I last time told you is “hamzatul wasl” which has no fat-ha, dammah or kasra…
So because of this, you have to drop this “aa” sound in ihdinaa and just continue reading:ihdina-ssiraata.
Where the a is the fat-ha on the noon in ihdinaa

I hope that makes sense.
So another example of when you drop it is, connecting 20:23 – 20:24.
You end 20:23 with alif maqsoora (ى) al-kubraa…
You pause and start 20:24 with “ithab”
But connecting 20:23 to the hamzatul wasl which starts 20:24 you drop the aa sound from “kubraa”, and you drop the “i” sound from “ithab” and you connect it to say

“al-kubra-thab ila..”

where the ‘a’ at the end of kubraa is the fat-ha on the ra letter, not from the alif maqsoora.

All other times, when a word ending with “aa” is followed by a word which starts with a diacritic, then you just read it normally.
Examples:

7:5 has, famaa kaana ….
then, ba’sunaa ithaa
then, kunnaa thaalimeen

(The above three aren’t the only ones, can you pick out the rest? 🙂 )

Hope this helps. Buzz in again if you need more clarification!Fi amaanillah.

Sister, salam again. I have re-read all your replies to me several times and i have also read thrue your newer posts especially the one about hamzatul wasl in order for it all to really sink in which i think it did alhamdullillah. There is just one confustion and it is about the word Allah (swt). I understand the ruling on hamzatul wasl but i was wondering if the word Allah which starts with hamzatul wasl has a special status in the quranic grammar or should the a be dropped in the same way as with other words with hamzatul wasl in them (except in the beginning of a sentence).

As an example 3:160, by the end of the ayah it says وعلى الله فليتوكل المؤمنون so how do i connect على الله when i read those words, should it be ‘ala Allahi or ‘alallaahi or how?

Yes, the word Allah does start with hamzatul wasl, and no, it does not have any special ruling in regards to this hamzah.
The example you gave is a great one, you are actually meant to drop the hamzah and say it as “alallaahi”.
If the word Allah starts at the beginning of an ayah, or if you need to begin with it after taking a small breath, then you say it normally, i.e. just as “Allah”…

Hope this helps! 🙂
Please keep asking so long you need the explanation!